Dog Shōgun!

Welcome to Edo, 1687! Meet Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646–1709), the 5th Tokugawa Shōgun, whose 29-year reign birthed some of history's wilder laws. Seeking karmic balance after losing his heir, Tsunayoshi enacted the 'Edicts on Compassion for Living Things'. While the laws protected everything from fish to flies, dogs in particular received the royal treatment. Harming a pup meant exile or death, turning Edo upside down for over twenty years. -------⛩️🐶🇯🇵🐶⛩️------- Back in Edo Japan, now known as Tokyo Late in the sixteen-eighties, long ago Shōgun said the old status quo had to go If you had a canine, it was time to show Every faithful rover respect from tail to toe! (Bow wow!) Better spoil your pupper, meet every want and need, Or the Shōgun's men would make you bleed! So barked Tsunayoshi! (Tsuna-who-shi?) Born in the Year of the Dog, you see! So if you spot a puppy strollin' by, Better bow down low... or say goodbyyyyye! All dogs are Shōgun! Dog Shōgun! Fifth Tokugawa! Dog Shōgun! Tryin' ta fetch some karmic cheer, Made every mutt the top dog of the year! Ō-Inu-Sama! (Woof! Woof!) Ō-Inu-Sama! (Woof! Woof!) He's the Dog Shōgun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi! Why'd Tsunayoshi put the dogs on top? His only little heir had reached his final stop. A Buddhist monk said, "If you want a brand-new son, You've got to show compassion to everyone... ...Especially dogs!" (Especially dogs!) So the Sho signed some barkin' new decrees! You could squash a mosquito or swat a flea, ...But sneeze on a Shiba? No mercy for thee! All dogs are Shōgun! Dog Shōgun! Fifth Tokugawa! Dog Shōgun! Tryin' ta fetch some karmic cheer, Made every mutt the top dog of the year! Ō-Inu-Sama! (Woof! Woof!) Ō-Inu-Sama! (Woof! Woof!) He's the Dog Shōgun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi! Now the people of Edo got terribly scared. Mess with a mongrel? You won't be spared! Let an Akita go ailling? Off to a cage! So they dumped dogs in the streets in a panicked rage! Now canines lined the cobblestones Barkin' by the thousands! What's a Shōgun to do When a hundred thousand hounds... TAKE OVER THE TOWN?!? He built enormous kennels! (A doggy resort!) Courtesy of the people's tax support! White rice and fish served in doggie bowls, While the human population paid the tolls! Fifty thousand strays in the Nakano zone, Waggin' away in a royal home! (Bow Wow!) Every dog's a Shōgun to the Dog Shōgun He's the fifth Tokugawa, Dog Shōgun! Tryin' ta fetch some karmic cheer Made every mutt the top dog of the year! Ō-Inu-Sama! (Woof! Woof!) Ō-Inu-Sama! (Woof! Woof!) He's the Dog Shōgun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi! In seventeen-oh-nine Tsunayoshi died! And the people breathed a great big sigh "Open all the kennels! Let the prisoners go!" No more bowing to a bow-wow in old Edo! Tsu-na-yo-shi! The Dog Shōgun! He loved the pups! The Dog Shōgun! The edicts are over, his era is done! History rolled over... ...and there's no bones about it....